


Extraneous

by friedgalaxies



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Disabled Character, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, M/M, Wisdom Teeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29949993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friedgalaxies/pseuds/friedgalaxies
Summary: Aone Takanobu is a big guy, and big guys like him require a lot of sedation.
Relationships: Aone Takanobu & Aone Takanobu’s Mother, Aone Takanobu & Futakuchi Kenji, Aone Takanobu/Futakuchi Kenji
Kudos: 15





	Extraneous

Futakuchi Kenji is not scared of many things. 

Except needles. And sharp objects in or near his face. And not being able to speak for prolonged periods of time. And the possibility of getting his organs stolen. 

So basically, the dentist is his worst nightmare. 

But beyond that, he’s even more afraid of his loved ones getting hurt, as loathe as he is to admit it. So, when the time comes for his best friend in the entire world to get his wisdom teeth out, Kenji is, inarguably, even more nervous than he was when the time came to get his own wisdom teeth removed. 

Of course, when that had happened, Takano had been there to hold his hand the entire time, from when he went under to when he woke up and the entire following day. Kenji was sure he said some awfully embarrassing, incriminating things while the influence of the anaesthesia they’d put him under with faded out. But he wouldn’t know first hand, considering Takano definitely wasn’t the kind of person to immediately show any embarrassing evidence he’d taken of Kenji at the time. 

No, everyone thought Takano was sweet (which he was) and gentle (which he definitely was off the court but it was an entirely different story on it), but he was far from innocent. No, he would save that incriminating footage until much later, when he needed a trump card to pull out on Kenji. 

Like that time he almost had to threaten bodily harm if Kenji didn’t keep his fat mouth shut about Takano’s huge crush on Karasuno’s #10. 

(He wouldn’t have actually done it, of course. It was just fun to tease his best friend sometimes. Most of the time.) 

So, when the fateful day comes for Takano to get his wisdom teeth removed, Kenji is far more nervous than the guy going under the knife himself. Takano’s mom is there, of course, Aone Hakucho in all five-foot-two-inches of her alarmingly muscular glory (but Kenji guessed that’s what happens when you haul around five different kids that are all taller than you by the time they hit puberty, much less the many subsequent grandchildren from those kids.) 

“Since he’s so large, we’ll have to use quite a bit of anaesthesia.” the dentist says, directly addressing Aone-okaasan even though Takano is the one in the chair. Takano doesn’t seem to mind, says it’s easier when people talk to the person next to him and he can get a direct translation instead of having to guess the parts that have been said too softly or too quickly, beyond the fact that the dentist is wearing a mask and Takano can’t even see his lips to read them. 

(They became best friends in elementary school, when the girls sitting behind Kenji and Takanobu wouldn’t stop commenting on the latter’s appearance. Kenji hadn’t known him then, definitely hadn’t known him well enough to read his thoughts from a single expression or shift of his body language as he does now, but Takano’s shoulders had hunched a little further inward with each insult. Kenji still wondered if they were speaking deliberately loud enough for Takano to hear or if they’d just possessed the average inability to speak in whispers of most fifth graders. 

Either way, it wasn’t until they started calling Takano dumb that Kenji really felt his blood start to boil, because even if he didn’t know the other boy that well yet he still knew Takano was easily the smartest person in the class, right up there alongside Kenji himself. He was just hard of hearing, better in one ear than the other, which accounted for how he always turned his good ear towards the person speaking-- and usually got scolded for “ignoring” whoever it was that was talking to him, until his mom came in one day and sorted the issue out with his teachers. Kenji hadn’t been privy to all the details but he knew there had been a lot of yelling involved. 

“He’s such a freak!” one of the girls had whispered, with the kind of volume control eleven-year-olds tended to lack. “Always staring at people, and he’s so stupid!” 

“Right! It’s like he doesn’t even hear me when I talk to him.” her friend whispered back. 

Takano’s shoulders hunched even more, and when Kenji looked close, the other boy was starting to shake. Kenji screwed his mouth up in determination, turning around in his seat to level the girls behind them with the best glare he could manage, one he’d picked up from his mother. 

“He sure can hear you right now, idiots! Just because he looks different you think he’s a freak?” Kenji spat. By now, their teacher was making her way over to them, fury on her face and a ruler in her hand. But Takano was looking at Kenji like he’d hung the moon and stars in the sky, pale blue eyes big and watering. Their teacher had grabbed Kenji by the upper arm now, but he couldn’t resist getting in one last jab before he was hauled off to the principal’s office. “If that’s how you think then you’re the dumb ones, not him!” 

Takano had found him the next day, sitting in the classroom during recess, as was his punishment. He split his strawberry yogurt dipped pretzels with him, and the rest was history.) 

“Ah, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Are you okay with that, Taka-tan?” Aone-okaasan asked, patting her son on the hand. Takano nodded. Kenji gulped. As the dentist lifted the (huge, scary, alarmingly sharp) needle, Kenji felt like he was in the chair again himself, about to be put under while a stranger gracelessly shoved sharp objects into his mouth. Takano gripped his hand tightly, reassuringly, and Kenji had to wonder who was supposed to be comforting who. 

He squeezed Takano’s hand back either way. 

Surgery went okay, of course, even though Takano’s two lower wisdom teeth were impacted and had to come out in chunks. Kenji squirmed when the dentist deposited the bloody red chunks of tooth into the kidney pan at the side. Aone-okaasan snorted at him. He stuck his tongue out at her. 

“Taka-tan?” Aone-okasaan said, gently turning Takano’s head as he blinked into consciousness so he could see her face. His head lolled to the side limply, smacking his dry lips. Kenji muffled a snicker into his hand. It was rare to see Takano so soft and pliable, all his defenses down and completely unfiltered. Though, truth be told, he was unfiltered most of the time, he just didn’t speak much. “How are you feeling?” 

Takano grunted, sniffed, and nodded. He tried to sit up, and Kenji rushed to steady him. Aone-okaasan clicked her tongue. “Help him stand up, Kenji-kun? Until we get to the car at least. You know I’m far too short.” 

Kenji chirped an affirmative and helped his best friend to his feet, grunting when Takano leaned most of his weight onto Kenji’s shoulder. Takano seemed incredibly focused on just putting one foot in front of the other, face scrunched up (adorably) in concentration, smacking his lips and poking his tongue around at the gauze in his mouth every so often. 

Kenji managed to get him into the back seat of the car by the time Aone-okaasan was finished paying and setting up the followup appointment, when the stitches would come out and they’d check that everything was healing well. Kenji was just buckling himself in beside Takano when Aone-okaasan slid into the driver’s seat with a huff, brows drawn low in the Aone Glare all of the siblings had seemed to inherit one way or another from their parents. She glanced back at the two of them through the rearview mirror, smiling resignedly. 

“Well, they said to keep an eye on him for the rest of the day, because they upped the anesthesia dose even beyond the one for his size, on account of the impacted teeth. Wouldn’t want him to wake up during surgery, after all.” she rolled her eyes. Kenji gave her a commiserating look. Takano yawned and reached blindly for Kenji’s hand, squeezing it just a little too tight. 

Aone-okaasan laughed. Kenji grumbled. Takano began to fall asleep, again. 

Contrary to popular belief, Takano wasn’t quiet because of some long-form intimidation play. He simply just didn’t like to talk, and was considered semi-verbal, both on account of his hearing but also on account of his autism. (Kenji still thought to this day that their easy connection as children was at least partially accounted to them both being autistic.) 

As a child, he’d used a system of PECS cards and informal sign language to communicate. Now, he still occasionally used cards, especially in unfamiliar or stressful situations, but most he communicated through short sentences, gestures, and JSL; though Kenji knew him well enough and he Kenji that they could communicate silently through expressions and vague gestures alone, something Kenji prided himself on. 

Most people simply didn’t know how to communicate with Takano, something that both saddened and frustrated Kenji, as most people simply weren’t willing to put in the time to understand him and how he communicated. The team, at least, all had at the very least a rudimentary understand of Takano and how he communicated. The first years were still a work in progress, however, with Sakunami unsurprisingly being the best and Kogane, also unsurprisingly, being the worst. Fukiage was a firm middle. 

Now, this being said, Kenji was kind of looking forward to see what Takano would be like as the anesthetic wore off, the closest thing he’d probably ever get to being high. Kenji wouldn’t say one way or another if he was planning on gathering any incriminating evidence, but, well… that was a matter for another time, wasn’t it? 

“Kenji.” Takano said as soon as they cleared the door, Aone-okaasan long since left them behind on the walkway up to the house to go putter around in the kitchen. Takano’s siblings were going to be home soon, and Takano was bound to get hungry sooner or later. Dude ate enough to feed a small army. 

Kenji quirked a brow with an inquisitive hum, toeing off his shoes as best he could and kicking them in the general direction of the shoe rack. He’d put them where they belonged later, after he’d gotten Takano settled. Takano pointed at the couch, lurching forward as if he were going to make directly for it. 

“Woah, woah, hey! Lemme take your shoes off first, big guy. Here, sit down.” Takano sat heavily on the lip of the genkan, staring dazedly down at his shoes. Kenji sighed, dropping into a crouch to remove his sneakers (he and Takano both were not so secretly big sneaker heads) and organized both their sets of shoes on the rack. Kenji levered his best friend up onto his feet again, shuffling them both the few feet over to the living room couch. Takano flopped heavily down onto it. 

Kenji was turning to go see if Aone-okaasan needed any help in the kitchen when a soft grunt caught his attention. Having been best friends since they were little kids, Kenji’s ears were fine-tuned to catch any and all such soft sounds, ones that others would have easily not heard or dismissed. He turned back, and to his surprise, Takano had both hands stuck out as if grabbing for Kenji, lower lip stuck out in a pout. Kenji almost giggled. 

“Lonely, big guy?” Kenji sat down in what little space Takano had left on the couch, and Takano immediately grabbed for him, wrapping his arms around Kenji’s waist and pressing his face into the soft weave of his sweater over his stomach. Kenji could only hope he wasn’t drooling blood on him, this sweater was one of his nicer ones. 

It wasn’t that Takano wasn’t affectionate, though he remained acutely aware of his size at most times (unless he was chest bumping someone on the volleyball court, in which he easily forgot his own strength) and didn’t opt for such brazen displays of physical affection. 

But Kenji didn’t really mind. He smoothed a hand over Takano’s short-cropped white hair, humming softly. “Need any help in there, Aone-okaasan?” 

“No, you boys just relax! Put on that one ghibli movie he likes, maybe?” 

“Ah,” Kenji peeked down at Takano, who still had his face snuggled into Kenji’s stomach. Possibly even more so than before, as if he were trying to burrow into him like a small animal. It was pretty cute, honestly. “I think he’s already asleep again. Besides, he won’t let me get up.” 

“What do you mean-- ah,” Aone-okaasan stuck her head out from the kitchen doorway, smiling as she caught sight of the two boys. One being her son, and the other being like a son to her in all but blood. “How cute. I could snap a picture.” 

Kenji immediately felt himself flush hot, all the way up to his ears. That would definitely turn into blackmail material one way or another. “N-no thanks, Aone-okaasan.” 

“Why don’t you boys take a nap? I’ll have dinner ready in another hour or so. Are you sure Kimi-chan is alright? She doesn’t want to come over?” 

“Nah, she’s at a friend’s house all weekend.” Kenji settled back into the couch, prepared to not move for another hour and a half at least. Then, softer. “Thanks, Aone-okaasan.” 

Aone-okaasan smiled, crows feet crinkling in her pale face. “Anything for you, Kenji-kun.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed! this was just something cute and silly i wanted to write. as always, comments, concrit, and questions are welcome!


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